There is no country in the world with more forests than our neighboring country Russia.
More than a fifth of the forest in the world is there.
Climate scientists are interested in forests. In short, it is because trees absorb CO2 from the air in the growth process and stores it as carbon. More carbon in the trees gives less CO2 in the air. It is positive for the temperature of the globe, most researchers believe.
An international team of researchers has now investigated how significant the huge forest areas in Russia really are. Their study is published in the journal Nature.
The Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991. Since then, Russia has reported very little change in its forest areas.
It does not match other remote measurements made.
Scattered numbers have created confusion
Several measurements have shown both increased wood cover and increased productivity.
This has led to uncertainty about the actual state of the Russian forest, explains the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in a press release.
Russian President Vladimir Putin photographed by himself on a trip to the taiga forest in Siberia in March this year. Photo: Alexei Druzhinin / Kremlin / AP / NTB
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Part of the purpose of the study was to arrive at more reliable figures.
The researchers could not go out and count all the trees, so they obtained figures from both the National Forest Register of Russia and the Global Forest Observation System.
And in combination with remote sensing, the data were used to make new estimates of forest growth.
Positive tall for Russland
The result was to the delight of the researchers. And in Russia’s favor. They concluded that Russia’s forests are growing and thriving.
The total biomass is said to have increased by about 40 per cent more than what was reported in the state register of forests.
The new study also estimates 47 percent higher carbon sequestration than reported in the International Greenhouse Gases Inventory.
The figures apply to the years between 1988 and 2014.
Positive tall – men …
Russia’s green forests are thus positive for the climate accounts. And the fact that the forest is spreading more than expected gives a plus in the margin.
But the researchers behind the study emphasize that a more extreme climate in the future could hit the forests hard. This way, the positive effects can quickly go to zero.
Jenni Nordén from the Norwegian Institute for Natural Research commented on the same in 2020. It was in connection with an article on forskning.no that trees that grow faster can also have a shorter lifespan and poorer ability to carbon bond.
– Relying on increased tree growth as a way to increase carbon stocks and carbon uptake is a short-term strategy, she commented in the article.
– Not only because of this observed effect, but also because of the risk of increased tree death as a result of a more extreme climate in the future; storms, droughts, high temperatures that kill or weaken trees and make them more prone to disease and pests.
Referanse: Schepaschenko, Dmitry., m.fl. (2021). Russian forest sequesters substantially more carbon than previously reported. Nature.
(This article was first published on Forskning.no).
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